(Note: I didn't actually write this, but I know who did and he said OK to putting it here)

Nicolette Norgaard has been attending auditions since the age of six but this one seemed particularly nerve-wracking.

A record producer was holding an open call for singers at a San Mateo hotel.

"I auditioned for musical theater," the Sequoia High sophomore said. "I'd never auditioned for a record contract before. There was a lot of anxiety."

Norgaard was required to prepare two songs for her audition. When she arrived at the audition, in the company of her mother Kim, a teacher at White Oaks Elementary School,...